While I understand the goals are not to track individual users, the linked blog post about the Endless OS system really doesn't inspire confidence considering it can track and report rough user location along with machine model and apps used, which _could_ be combined with other telemetry data and build a specific user profile. While I understand the utility of statistics for developers, this proposal need to be more concrete in terms of what will be collected and for the potential of data abuse be more seriously considered.
The most important issue here is user consent. If you want to collect even potentially sensitive user data, make sure the user knows the full extent of their options and is given a choice. Now, I also understand the concern of no one turning the telemetry on and not getting useful data, but I strongly disagree with relying on a default switch and a dark pattern (pressing next on a toggle under "privacy" that is turned on). That is *not consent!* The options given must be a clear Yes/No prompt with a full explanation of what data is sent. If you want to nudge users to turn it on to avoid the aforementioned problem, you could make sure the 'Yes' button is in an easy-to-reach spot like where the 'Next' button is, or to color 'Yes' blue and color 'No' red, which still preserves their semantics but maybe nudges users who don't care or would be on the fence. Lastly, for consent to matter the parties involved need to know the extent of their choices. Here Fedora could get inspiration from other projects. Syncthing is a great example: 1) They present to the user the exact JSON that will be sent over their Yes/No prompt. 2) They version the sets of data sent by the client, so if the data collected changes the user is asked again to consent before new data is sent. Also, before we got this proposal, have other methods of collecting whatever data the desktop team wants been considered? Why were they not chosen? Without the above precautions I'm not sure what the Red Hat team is looking to accomplish except create distruct in their community and potentially drive people off. _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to devel-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
